Copy of Flowers For Algernon Prezi

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Transcript of Copy of Flowers For Algernon Prezi

Character SketchCharlie Gordon is a male adult who is 37 years old, born on February 19, 1928. He is mentally retarded and has a very low I.Q. of 68. He lives in an apartment building owned by Mrs. Flynn in New York and attends a night school for adults, where he is taught many things by Miss Kinnian, the teacher. Charlie really wishes that he could be smart and works hard to achieve that. He is a very superstitious adult and believes in the luck/bad luck of a rabbit’s foot, lucky penny, horseshoe, black cats, etc. Charlie had a father who never kept his promises, was always drunk, and was always arguing about money. He also has a mother and a cousin, who is named Miltie. According to Charlie’s mother, his father died, but according to his cousin, his father left with another woman. However, Charlie will never know the truth.Charlie is Irish and has red hair. He has nice eyes, a large smile, a round face and usually looks confused. However, he sometimes wears eye glasses, making him look sharper. Charlie is quite muscular, as his job as janitor does require some amount of strength. As well, Charlie usually does not dress especially nicely, as he does not feel the need to do so.For the experiment, Charlie has to write progress reports to show what he is feeling and his thoughts. He enjoys and dislikes writing these reports at the same time. At first, Charlie thinks that writing the progress reports are stupid and a waste of time, but later on, he realizes that it is one of the only things that he can do and enjoys. Another thing that he likes and dislikes is racing with Algernon. At the beginning, he does not enjoy it because he gets really frustrated that he keeps on losing. However, when he wins, he really enjoys it, even if he loses. He also likes playing with Algernon, as the mouse is one of his close friends. He does not enjoy drinking as well, unlike many of his co-workers. As well, he really enjoys learning new things and wants to become smart and live as a ‘smart’ person.Charlie loves and respects his teacher Miss Kinnian greatly. He also loved Algernon, the special mouse who had also been a test subject for the operation. He likes Dr. Strauss and somewhat dislike Dr. Nemur for being a grouch.Charlie is a very good natured person and is very determined and motivated to become smart. Charlie has good morals and generally wants the best for the people around him, even if they were mean to him or mistreated him. He is also very hard working and strongly values fairness and friendship. Throughout the period of time when his intelligence was changing, however, he was very emotionally unstable and had many ups and downs. Sometimes, he would be very happy, and sometimes, he would be very depressed. Charlie can also be a bit impatient at times, and gets frustrated and angry easily, but overall, he is a very good person.LabReportQuestion: Can someone’s intelligence or I.Q. be tripled permanently through surgical means?

Background:I, Dr. Nemur, have discovered a way to triple someone’s intelligence through surgery and these are my findings. This lab report is to record my findings for an experiment where I will use this technique for the first time on a human. His name is Charlie Gordon and he has an I.Q. of 68. As well, this lab report includes my observations on Algernon, a special mouse who has also undergone the surgery.

Hypothesis: I think that if the certain technique developed by me was used on a human’s brain, it would be possible to make that person smarter by tripling their I.Q., although the change may take time.

Procedure: 1. Perform surgery on Charlie Gordon.

2. Make Charlie write progress reports to record his emotional and mental growth.

5. Analyze progress reports to see emotional and intellectual growth.Observations:Algernon: After I completed the operation on Algernon, nothing happened at first. However, as time progressed I realized that he was slowly getting smarter. We made him run a few mazes to test his intelligence and he solved them without problem. This proves that he is gradually getting smarter, as before the surgery, Algernon was not able to complete even one maze. As well, he completed it at a decent speed. At first, his artificially created intelligence seemed to be permanent, but our fears turned out to be true. In a few months, Algernon became hostile and general motivation decreased. Soon after, he died and after dissecting his brain, we found that his intelligence had decreased after all. I must work on the technique to make the effects permanent in the future.Charlie: Charlie was the same as Algernon. The operation went successfully and soon, he was even smarter than me. However, we discovered that the more the intelligence is increased, the more rapid the deterioration will be. Therefore, Charlie went back to the way he was before the operation very quickly and like Algernon, was very emotional and uncooperative during this stage. Analysis: In the end, this experiment was unsuccessful, because even though the two test subjects did get smarter, it was not a permanent effect. I must continue my research in hopes that I will discover a better way to complete the operation that will either increase the duration of the artificial intelligence or make it permanent. However, this is still a huge discovery and is a big step towards making everybody smarter through surgical means.Conclusion: In conclusion, someone’s intelligence may be able to be tripled permanently, but not using this method. However, for now, doing this is impossible: someone’s intelligence cannot be tripled or increased permanently through surgical means at the moment.Themes In MediaI think that the theme of the story ‘Flowers for Algernon’ is that you should try really hard do the best that you can with everything that you have been given. As well, never be down or give up on something because nothing is impossible. This would be a fitting theme for this story, since Charlie Gordon never gave up on his dream to become smart, even after the operation failed and he really tried hard to become smart and to keep his intelligence, even after he knew it would disappear. Also, even though Charlie had a low I.Q. and that isn’t something that can be changed easily, he still tried to become smart, and in the end, he was rewarded and experienced the feeling of being smart, even if it was only for a little while.Song – Living On A PrayerSung by Bon Jovi

Movie – The Pursuit Of HappynessDirected by Gabriele Muccino

Book – The Hunger GamesWritten By Suzanne CollinsI think that the movie ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ directed by Gabriele Muccino shares a very similar theme to the short story ‘Flowers for Algernon’ and is a good example of the theme being executed in real life. ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ is based on a real life story, and is about a man named Chris Gardner and his struggle with being a homeless father who is trying to get a job. However, because he is homeless because of a bad investment, he faces many struggles and obstacles in his way to getting a job, but he prevails in the end due to many hard sacrifices and hard work. In the movie, Chris must compete with many other contestants for the stockbroker job, all who are under better conditions than he is. However, in the end, hard work paid off, and Chris even went on to create his own multi-million dollar brokerage firm. This is a great example of not giving up and working hard to achieve your dreams because even though he started out homeless, he was still able to achieve more than the others who wanted that job.Story MapExpositionThe exposition of the story ‘Flowers for Algernon’ begins with progress report #1 or March 5, 1965 and ends with the end of progress report #3. The exposition introduces the majority of the central characters and shows us some of the setting as well. It gives us some background information about Charlie, the main character or protagonist, like his birthday and age and shows us that he is not very smart through his actions and his writing or reports. Some other main characters introduced include Dr. Strauss, Dr. Nemur, Miss Kinnian, Algernon, a mouse who had taken the surgery, and Charlie Gordon. As for the setting, the exposition tells us that Charlie is inside a hospital. Furthermore, there are clues that hint towards a special operation that makes you smarter, which is something that plays and important role and is a key factor in this story.I think that the song ‘Living on a Prayer’ is related to the theme of the story ‘Flowers for Algernon’ because the song talks about Gina and Tommy, who are both in really bad situations but they still decide to try. In the first verse, there is a line that says, “He’s down on his luck… its tough, so tough,” but in the chorus, it says, “We’ll give it a shot!” This means that even though many bad things in life are happening, he still did not give up. I think that this theme based on Tommy’s actions is related to the theme in ‘Flowers for Algernon’. As well, in the song, they acknowledge that their situation is bad, but they already have gone halfway and so its worth it to go the rest of the way, instead of giving up.I think that the book ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins is somewhat representative of the theme in ‘Flowers for Algernon’. In ‘The Hunger Games’, it talks about Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl from District 12, the poorest of all districts and how she wins the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are tournaments hosted by the Capital, the richest city and controller of all 12 districts, where 1 boy and girl from each district will fight each other to the death, to remember the sacrifice in the war. Because district 12 is the poorest district, there are almost no winners from that district, but Katniss Everdeen, against all odds, still manages to win the Hunger Games and save Petta Mellark as well, the boy from District 12. This shares the theme of ‘Flowers for Algernon’ because even under these circumstances, Katniss still does everything to win the games, even faking a love with Peeta to get help from the crowd. As well, even though everyone said that she was the most unlikely to win the competition, she still was able to win because she did everything that she could possibly do and never gave up, even though she was the least favoured competitor.Flowers For Algernon PreziSTARTFINISHThe EndInciting IncidentThe inciting incident for this story would be progress reports #4, 5, and 6. These progress reports set up the main obstacle or conflict of the story. In these reports that Charlie wrote, he is picked for the operation that supposedly triples your intelligence. It is successful and Charlie wonders about his future and being smart. This is the inciting incident because it is the turning point for the story, as this is when Charlie begins to gradually become smarter. The operation shows us the conflict which is Charlie being dumb. However, he really wants to get smarter and undergoes the operation to do so. Nonetheless, he does not get smarter right away, and faces obstacles on his journey to becoming smart and that is where the rising action comes in.Rising ActionThe rising action begins right after the inciting incident and starts with progress report #7, when Charlie realizes that nothing is happening and he is not getting smarter, and becomes frustrated, saying everything is stupid. Time progresses and Charlie goes back to work at Mr. Donnegan’s factory and goes back to his night school as well. Soon, he is able to beat Algernon at a maze and realizes that he is actually getting smarter, just slowly. He suddenly realizes things about his past life that he did not notice before, because he is getting smarter. Along the way, he finds that he is in love with Miss Kinnian, but after a while, Charlie surpasses everyone around him in intelligence and this is where the rising action ends, at the end of progress report #12.ClimaxThe climax of ‘Flowers for Algernon’ is progress report #13, when Charlie is at the peak of his intelligence and discovers that the effect from the special operation is only temporary, and in time, he will lose all of the artificial intelligence that he gained, and will revert back to the way he was before: ignorant and unintelligent. This is the climax because this is when the conflict of Charlie being unintelligent is solved. Even if it was only temporary, Charlie became smarter than anyone else around him and experienced life as a ‘smart’ person.Falling ActionThe falling action starts in the middle of progress report #13, on June 5th, when Charlie notices signs of deterioration of his intelligence. As the falling action continues, he finds that he is getting dumber and dumber, and is very absentminded. Charlie wishes that the things he learned while being smart would stay, and becomes very emotional during the period of time when his intelligence deteriorates. The falling action ends on June 27th, when he returns to work at Mr. Donnegan’s factory.Resolution

The resolution is July 28th, when Charlie ‘pulls a Charlie Gordon’ and realizes that all of the intelligence gained from the operation has disappeared. In the resolution, Charlie decides to leave New York, and start a new life where no one would know that he was once a genius. This event ties up all the loose ends of the story, by leaving his life behind and starting a new one somewhere else. Finally, Charlie asks for someone to put flowers on Algernon’s grave, concluding the story: ‘Flowers for Algernon’.